Faith, Family & Legacy — The Life of Phil Hanks (Roots & Branches of Lehi)
Full Conversation Transcript
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welcome to roots and branches of Lehi the podcast where we get to know the faces stories and lives that make up our
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community I'm Ryan Harding and I started this podcast as a way for us all to connect with the people we live
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alongside growing up in a small town I learned that connections go beyond blood they're built through shared experiences
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friendships and the moments we celebrate together each week we'll sit down with someone new from Lehi to share their
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unique story their passions and what they love most about living here so whether you've been here for years or
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just arrived join us as we deepen Our Roots and reach out to our branches one
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story at a time welcome Phil Hanks to the to the podcast where we get to learn
Meet Phil Hanks: A Legacy of Ephraim Hanks
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about you today so I'm excited I've I've known you for a little while I knew your
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son better and and we get to interview you and get to know you a little bit better so you are what how many greats
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the great great great grandson how you know do away with the two greats okay I
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am a grandson a grandson I am a grandson of be from Hanks okay that's pretty
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close yeah well it's pretty close but it's 200 years sure sure there's still a
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good amount of time in between yes but that's pretty good Ephraim will have his
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200th birthday next year okay okay so there's a span of a long span of two
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generations yeah wow and how how I mean obviously he's you know there's a lot of
Ephraim Hanks: A Life of Faith and Miracles
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pioneers who were who did a lot of good things that nobody knows right he's one that we do know about how has that kind
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of affected your life and you know has that has that always been somebody that you're like hey I'm the you know grandson of eph from Hanks or is that
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something on in your life or tell me how that's you know kind of played into your life well in my later years it's become
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more meaningful as a teenager my mother and I made a trip to Provo and stayed overnight with my uncle
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who was a son of ever and if I had been sharp I could have quizzed him yeah and
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found out more about Ephraim but I didn't Ephraim Denver kept a journal
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okay and with the polygamy situation my father really didn't know him that well
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okay my father never kept a journal yeah so and to complicate matters my father
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died 6 months before I was Bor born mhm so I never knew my father okay wow yeah
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so a lot so where has a lot of your knowledge about Ephraim Hanks come from then well hand me down and then there
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was a short history novel written about eph in the
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1950s and it had some details then there was another book written in the 1980s
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which was more of a romance novel and then a cousin of mine wrote a master's
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thesis which was published at BYU in the 1970s but it wasn't really that complete
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of a history and I talked to this cousin asked him if he would like to do more
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research and make it more complete yeah but he was getting on in years and chose not to do it so I took the bull by the
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horns and about 10 years ago I researched all that I could find in the
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in the church history library and other things that had been written and put it
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together and published it under the name of I'm ready now okay and so yeah I've
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become quite familiar with him in the last few years sure are are there any stories or any I mean what what stands
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out most to you about his life or why why is it meaningful I guess to you well there are a couple things but first I
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should say that he he was among others yeah on The Rescuers of the handcart
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company and uh for some reason some reason he got the publicity yeah but uh
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couple of things that stand out he had the gift of healing and I don't know exactly when that took effect he uh
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joined the church in about 1846 along in there and uh he was part
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of the Mormon Battalion and during the the March March one of his compies
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became ill and deim gave him a blessing I found that in the history okay and he
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was healed mhm so evidently it started about then but he had another a number
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of other incidents where he used the power of the priesthood
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restored at least two people to life after they had passed away and and
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another a number of other healings and course course the rescue which made him famous he
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prayed well he he was not in the original company of Rescuers okay
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because on October 6th in 1856 Brigham Young issued the call for
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Rescuers to head out that's what the day I think after he heard that the the
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handcart company was still on the planes Ephraim was not there at the time three weeks later Ephraim was fishing in Utah
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Lake okay and had attended a conference here in American Fork where he spoke on
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missionary work but he then went started back to Salt Lake and got as far as
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Draper that night stayed overnight with a friend and then uh voice came to him
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telling him that the handcart people needed help so he got on Salt Lake and
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by this time it was um about the 20 6th of October and Brigham Young called some
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others together and said we need you to go rescue the handcart company and some of them said I can be ready in a few
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days and that's where we get the famous phrase Ephraim said I'm ready now yeah
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so he took off that was about November or October the 26th and it took him 3
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weeks I believe it was he arrived at the rescue at the Martin handcart company on
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the 11th of November but he had been stopped for 3 days at South pass waiting
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for the blizzard to die down so November well he prayed one night for a buffalo
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and suddenly one appeared he shot it one shot and dressed it out loaded on his
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pack horse and that was the day he he spotted the hand cart company wow but
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like I said there were other Rescuers and I think they you know of course deserve credit but Ephraim was the one
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that got the Buffalo gotcha and he got there and and there were quite a few
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comments written comments or I guess left their historical record
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appreciation to Ephraim and you think that's in large part because he did get the Buffalo like he he actually not he
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he came but he also brought a lot of food you know yeah yeah yeah which is what they needed at that moment and at
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that rescue he he brought uh one man back to life he healed uh another young
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man a boy who had Gang Green so terrible that he would he would have to have his
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feet amputated but Ephraim gave him a blessing and his feet were healed wow
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and he lived a full life wow and yeah that's great oh that's a great story
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they did a movie on it right right how' they do with the movie they do pretty good as far as yeah TC Christensen did
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the movie ephraim's rescue yeah and it did well yeah pretty accurate yeah
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pretty accurate portrayal Yeah couple of minor things sure sure they got to make it into they got to make it entertaining
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right it wasn't to the you know to the Hollywood effect it was it was really
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good yeah yeah well anything else from his life that that stands out to you or anything else that that you know I guess
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just that stands out to you or that helps you in your life from his life well I suppose his testimony that
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sustained him and his willingness to do whatever he's told to do he was
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adventurous I should mention I guess that after on November 11th where he he
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discovered the rescue the hand card company he accompanied them and they
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arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the 30th of November and I believe it was was on the 11th of December briam young called
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him to go back and take the mail oh wow okay in the snow yeah and he was a pony
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express writer made about at least 50 trips from the valley back to St Louis
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and several trips to California wow with the mail wow yeah but I suppose anything
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to remember him by that's influenced me is his faith and his obedience that he
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was willing to do what rickham called him to do regardless I want to Pivot a little bit
Phil Hanks' Personal Journey and Contributions
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so Ephraim Hanks is a well-known you know in the church well-known person but I would argue your life has been you
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know maybe less wellknown but very influential and very helpful in this world right I don't know about you're
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not going to well hey that's okay I can say it and you can you can disagree but so you've held lots of different
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callings in the Church of Jesus Christ the Latter-Day Saints can you highlight a few of those and and you know what
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you've what you've done there okay well first let me back up I was born after my
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father died it was during the Great Depression yeah I'm a depression baby there were nine of us in the family
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siblings okay we had a farm with sheep and dairy cows and I think we came close
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to losing everything during that time and it was the time my father died died
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of pneumonia but my oldest brother was 20 21 when I was born 20 when my father
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died and so he took the management of the farm okay thank goodness that he was
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there but we managed through the depression to keep our land and our
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family together and so that was my upbringing I lived on the farm and when
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I was 15 we sort of graduated from hand milking the cows to a milking machine
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and to a grade A Dairy so I uh managed the dairy okay for a couple of years
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then I went on to school and so on so I served a mission in Samoa okay as a
Phil Hanks' Missionary Work and Leadership
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young man for almost 3 years it was a 2 and 1 half year Mission but the mission
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president wanted to extend my mission uh 6 weeks and so it was from the time I
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left home until I came back it was almost 3 years and uh my sweetheart
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waited for me we were engaged before I left and she waited Faithfully so we
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were married as soon as I got back wow that's awesome then I got into the church educational system and I returned
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to Samo after 2 years with my wife and taught school there in the church school
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for 3 years and at the end of our three-year contract we got a letter well let me back up just a little bit I got a
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telegram from my mother there was no other communication no telephone calls or anything it was just just a letter
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she sent it telegram oh telegram okay congratulations and I didn't know what it was about we had I'd been called to
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they called the mission council at the time and I thought well that's nice of my mother to send a
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telegram and then I got another telegram that same day from a cousin saying congratulations President and I had no
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idea what that was about but the next day mail came there had been a
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Pan-American plane strike for 6 weeks we hadn't had mail for 6 weeks oh wow but
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mail came and it was a letter from the first presidency calling us to lead the
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mission in Samo wow I was 28 at the time and she was 27 we grew a year in the
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next few months I bet I bet so uh yeah
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so we came home came for 10 weeks and there was a seminar for Mission
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presidents all 61 of us there were just 61 Missions at the time that's it so we
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attended the seminar and then were set apart and returned about the 1 of July
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to take over the Reigns of the mission and we should have been afraid but I
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wasn't I don't know why yeah maybe I was just stupid naive I guess right yeah but
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yeah and uh the call was for three years and at the end of the 3 years another couple were called but
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because of illness in the family they weren't able to accept the call we waited and we waited about September we
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still didn't have any word of a replacement so I uh wrote to Elder hinley who was my contact sure who was a
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member of the 12 at the time and taking care of the missionary work anyway I suggested to him that we'd really prefer
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not coming home in the cold cuz we'd been away 7 years in the tropics wow he
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uh expressed appreciation for uh our offer and he said thank you we'll honor your request
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so we stayed the fourth year okay which was a great year I felt we accomplished
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quite a bit but I think my emphasis during the time I was there was to train
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leadership to prepare for stake organization and that happened while we were there they organized the first St
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but it's a little bit it's interesting too that some more of that little place
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out in the Pacific we had about a 100 branches of the church and 12 13 member
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districts plus missionaries to supervise so it was a heavy load yeah very heavy
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took me away from my wife and the kids we had four kids by the time we left the
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mission and it placed a lot on her shoulders she managed the mission home and counil the missionaries and so on so
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it was a a rough time for her but bless her art she so yeah I we came home in
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1965 and I got into church educational system then started out teaching
Challenges and Triumphs in Church Education
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seminary in Pleasant Grove got my Master's Degree at BYU and got started
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my doctor which I finished it took a little while to finish my doctorate but
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then I was hired at Cedar City Institute we lived in peran okay there really
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wasn't any housing suit for our growing family in Cedar City but we did find
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this nice house small but nice and perin so we were there 16 years wow and I was
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uh called the State president for 10 of those years in perin then in 1983 while
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we were still there in peran I got stomach cancer and the doctor didn't
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give me too good of a prognosis but through the power of the priesthood my brother had a
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gift of healing I suppose carried on from ephra I don't know anyway I was
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healed and never had any more difficulty with cancer and fulfilled I think a
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successful career in 1985 I was assigned to come to the central office in Salt
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Lake and to work in the budgeting Department why I guess because I am sort of like Alan I have an affinity to our
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numbers yeah okay and so I worked in the budget Department interesting thing I
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didn't have a computer to begin with oh really wow but it wasn't too long till I got a computer okay and we were at the
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time working out budget reports I was in charge of FTE which is full-time
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equivalent which is tied in with the the dollar budget okay anyway I we sending
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the these reports to what we call the Mainframe for correction and they'd send
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them back back and we debug them and send them again to the main frame and they were charging Mega by the second
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for the reports so I decided you know I can down all download all of this on my
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PC so I did oh really I had all of the areas of the church tied together and
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and any change would make a change throughout the whole system and I saved the church a lot of
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money wow that's awesome and after a while because of the computer and my
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downloading everything on the PC my workload
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diminished and I wondered what was going to happen so they gave me the the Furnishings of the Church of church
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education to manage okay and that was a huge job I mean it was during the asbest
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retrofit okay and all the seminaries had asbest so we had to go through the
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system I mean all over the country taking out the asbest which meant that we had to
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recarpet refurnish all the furniture so that fell on my shoulders so I did that
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for uh three years and then I was called to go back to
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Samoa okay as the Director of church Ed of church schools and church education
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so I did that for 3 years and at the time we had about 12 missionary couples
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and I was in effect their mission president I wasn't the mission president
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sure I was supervising them yeah and so I enjoyed that and we had a challenges
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with the administration organization of the schools but we did it for 3 years
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and retired so I keep going yeah keep going I like I I hey this is great okay
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so as soon as we got home what were we going to do with retirements we accepted
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a call to serve as missionaries in the church office building processing missionary papers
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for senior missionaries for church education so for 18 months we supervised
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this work and we sent couples all over the world for church education couples and and and sing Single sisters that was
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very gratifying and that took us to 196
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What year no no 19 9 98 okay 1998 and we
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just I guess took a breather for a couple of years visiting our kids we have we have had 11 children one our
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first baby dieded soon after birth and we've raised 10 and very wonderful
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family but in the year 2000 yeah in the year 2000 we thought we ought to go on a
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mission again so we put in our papers willing to go wherever they we were sent
Missionary Service in Ukraine and Beyond
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so they sent us to Ukraine okay with church education yeah and we were there
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for a year and a half it took some adjusting we didn't learn the language as well as we thought we would or could
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we were jealous of the young missionaries because they learned it so so fast yeah but we did learn it well
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enough that we could get around we could call her on taxis we could get her on
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groceries and I think the younger missionary were a little bit upset that
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they couldn't help us more but we wanted to be the independent of course yes we
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were and did a lot of walking a lot of organizing of seminaries and institutes
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training teachers it was a it was a gratifying experience but a difficult one yeah by the time we left it was a
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difficult like I say difficult experience and we I felt I would never
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go back okay A year later just out of nowhere came this feeling you need to go
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back to Ukraine my attitude changed just like that so we requested again that we
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go to re Ukraine we went to the same city the same apartment same assignment
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only expanded this time and in this second time our mission president gave
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us more responsibility in The District in the city where we were in in kov so I
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was in the district presidency and Don was in the district primary presidency
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which was really great experience for us besides doing the church education work
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so that was for a year and a half and came home resettled with our family and by then we were living in Sandy Utah
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that's where we moved to from peran was to Sandy while I worked in the church office building well after a couple of
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years we got ephraim's urging I guess to go out again we requested going to the
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Friberg Germany Temple because that's where the Ukrainian Saints did their
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Temple work they make a 36-hour bus ride to get there wow so they honored our
A New Mission in Freiburg
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request we went to fryberg for another year and a half however while I should
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say that we thoroughly enjoyed our our mission there in Friberg at the end of
Called to Serve in Samoa
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one year we got a call from Preston iring and he called us to serve as the
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temple president and matron back in Samoa oh wow so we ended our mission
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after a year in Friberg we were home for what about 4 months and then we went to
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Samoa and had that wonderful experience of serving in the temple for 3 years so
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then we came home regrouped with her family and have been there been home
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since we got home in 2011 by then Allan had bought a home in Lehigh and there
Settling in Lehigh
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was an exra lot unclaimed in his subdivision subdivision so we uh got
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made arrangements to buy it and build a home there settled there been there for 11 years wow and our daughter Lisa
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managed to get a lot right behind us so we have Alan and Lisa close by that's
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great which is a blessing yeah that's a lot of church history service I mean you know you you've lived how old are you
Reflections on Church Service
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now I'm 92 92 okay so you just outlined a lot of church service a lot
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of things you've done you know over those years I have a couple questions but it I want I'll start with this one
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what what would you say you've learned from all that church service and and and to put it on one or two things is
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probably impossible but I'm going to make you do it anyhow but tell me some of the things that like that stood out
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to you from specifically from church service you know doing that what what what stands out to you what what things
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have you learned from that I think one thing is the ability to love people because we do we've loved the people
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everywhere we've been and how close the Lord is to us we've seen some great
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experiences and the changing of lives of people especially through Temple service
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to see how people's lives were changed for example in Friberg the Ukrainian
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would Ukrainian Saints would come by the bus loads yeah every couple of months
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and when they came most of them were new I the churches knew in Ukraine yeah they
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had no idea what to expect in the temple and they came afraid not knowing what to
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expect they would come on a Monday and they would start their Temple work Tuesday through Friday or Saturday and
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to see them grow in their devotion and their love during those four or five
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days in the temple going from baptisms for their ancestors to the endowment to ceilings
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with their of their families and ancestors they were changed so by the time they left there were tears and hugs
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and back in some more times when uh we were in the mission we would call groups
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or let me back up we would call individuals or couples we'd had them
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stand up in District conference and say we call you to prepare to go to the temple which was in New Zealand which
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meant a lot of sacri sacrifice and preparation for them but many of them prepared and and they would go to the
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temple it meant they had to take a boat to Fiji they had to take a plane to New Zealand they had to take a bus to Temple
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View and then they were helped subsidized by the local Saints and they stayed there for a month or six weeks
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doing nothing but Temple work wow and when they back came back to Samoa they
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were changed I mean they were different people yeah they were different very
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dedicated I don't know whether they ever like the converted lonit they never did turn away
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yeah so yeah those were some experiences so I guess the love of people and and
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then the the importance of the temple I guess is what I'm heing Devo and their devotion and different yeah you know
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talk to I mean you said you served in Ukraine and stuff like that you know have you stayed in contact with anybody from Ukraine how how is the war tell me
Impact of the Ukraine War
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your thoughts on I guess you know that the war in Ukraine and the the problem the war in Ukraine has been terrible
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it's our friends are scattered yeah nor Germany Hungary Portugal United States
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all over the United States and I don't know whether they will ever be able to return I I don't
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know yeah but it's been a terrible thing one uh dear friend a teacher a lady
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teacher while we were in Ukraine we were asked to teach English in an elementary
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school elementary junior high and one of the teachers there a lady spet Lana
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became a d very dear friend she's still there still teaching really and we keep
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in touch with her but the schools have been destroyed she the last letter
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indicated that she was teaching online okay but yeah it's been a terrible
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situation yeah no we hope that things are resolved in a positive way but yeah obviously there's long-term damage yeah
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whether things are peacefully resolved or not I guess right yeah you know so but yeah we we contact some of the good
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friends okay what what other you know so obviously you know church service is
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service is work right I mean there's a lot of work that goes into those things I mean it's not uh they're not easy so
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any challenges stand out to you you know in your in your time you know and how you overcame them or different things
Challenges and Leadership
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like that any any you know in Ukraine like I say there was a lot of walking
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and uh riding on Old trams old buses old
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trains the weather was cold that was one great difficulty for us it was difficult
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for my wife because because of the walking and the discomfort yeah but she
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loved the people too and they loved her I mean everyone loved her yeah in the temple it's difficult physically yeah we
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were uh we would trade shifts but 3 days a week most weeks we were up at 3:00 in
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the morning wow to open the temple and 8 hour shifts plus but the amazing thing
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was we'd be so tired in the mornings going to the temple we'd open the temple
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go in get ready and we had just we were revitalized after 8 hours we felt like
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crash sure I'm sure yeah those are long shifts especially at an older age too
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right I mean you know your body's not what it was once and so yeah we were Welling to our 70s by that time yeah but
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3:00 a.m. yeah that's that comes that comes quickly in the morning it does and you don't sleep well at night knowing
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you have to wake up at 3:00 yes for fear you won't wake up yes yes but we never overslept I never overslept for to meet
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a an appointment but you still had a little anxiety that you might sure sure yeah what other challenges what other
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challenges did you come I mean you know with so that's with that you know you you said you were the State president
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before you know in in your job with church education and stuff like that any other challenges you know stand out to
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you well I mean you're always working with individuals and each individual is different yeah so it's you know there's
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a lot of intricacy working with individuals in Samoa there was a feeling when we went back as directors of church
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education that Samoa should be for S they quite resented that we were there
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as exp Patriots okay so that was a challenge sure yeah you're saying some
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of them them are all of them dead or you know I mean some sure yeah uh many of them knew why we were there sure because
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there were some difficulties sure and they some knew why we were there and and
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supported us but it was a a real challenge yeah were you able to resolve
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that or or just kind of show love and and you know things kind of gradually became better and stuff it yeah I don't
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know if there was ever resolved totally okay yeah yeah what any other you know
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what about leadership principles from that time as you know in church church service anything you learned because
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oftentimes you were the you know you were the leader you were the one in charge and stuff like that and so any
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leadership principles or things that you know if you were counseling somebody you know a grandson or something like that
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who's about to be in a new calling that's leadership and stuff like that any any advice you would give you know
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from your time as a leader I suppose just love the people don't be afraid to give correction in the right way when
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that's needed always teach teach leadership principles for example in in Samoa when we were
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preparing them for State leadership we would call the branch and District presidents together and we ask them to
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define the present situation where they were what the aim was in the future and
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of course it was to be organized into Wards and Stakes okay and where you are and what's
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required there what do you need to do to get there okay and it was it was great
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they responded well in the stake organization it was just the same sort of thing just continually helping them
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solve their own challenges yeah good I think one thing especially was their
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concern or their challenge of working with the youth in in the stake I was in
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and in Samoa there was more regard for the adults than the youth so I tried to
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place a lot of emphasis on working with the youth in perin also the retirees
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reached a point where they were kind of content to rest yeah so we took a our
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presidency decided that we could do a few things to keep them going we first
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of all the church was setting up the extract name extraction program okay for
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genealogy and it was new but we wanted to get it started in our stake which we did and we had a dozen senior members
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sign up to do that okay and they they didn't want to be released they served for years yeah and that then U we called
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them by couples or our single sisters to we were in peran they to go to the
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temple in St George we rented an apartment and asked them if they would pay for the apartment for a week and do
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Temple work okay they loved it I bet they did and soon we had to rent two
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apartments oh wow and uh like I say they so that was emphasis on the seniors as
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well as we tried to get young the youth on missions young couples into the
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temple so that was our emphasis you kind of already answered or you know I guess
Advice for the Younger Generation
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well I have a question for you you know the the younger generation you're talking about the youth right now and stuff like that you know the world is in
33:35
commotion there's a lot of problems in this world absolutely um you know what advice you know should they be scared
33:42
you know what what advice do you have for the younger generation growing up at this time you know what what things
33:48
would you want them to know I guess well I was just reading one of the conference talks last night about this very thing
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that the youth seem to be afraid but this is a great time to be alive they have so much positive yeah pos positive
34:06
things but yet there are a lot of negative things and they just stay stay true to the faith follow the prophet I
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think that's the main thing and some people find that a little bit difficult with some of the policies that we and
34:20
the challenges we face now but following the prophet following their leaders
34:26
staying true to the faith no matter what yeah have you seen the temple you know
34:31
so you currently are serving as a sealer in the temple okay no longer you're no longer doing Seer okay but that was
34:37
recent right that you were doing that yeah I was a Seer starting with 1995 and
34:43
SoMo yeah until my wife had a stroke and it was not possible for me to leave her
34:50
that was about just before Co okay okay so that time I I de divested myself of
34:58
that sure opportunity but you've obviously been a part of the temple for a very long time in your life right how
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you know have you seen the temple its effect on on Youth and and people you
35:10
know in your life my wife and I have always loved the temple when we served as as Mission leaders in Samo we didn't
35:18
have that opportunity because there was no Temple okay we did take a tour with one Temple group to New Zealand our last
35:26
year there which was very beautiful but ever since then we've loved our Temple
35:34
service have served as ordinance workers as well as being a sealer my wife played
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the organ in the Draper Temple and then the mount temporus Temple once or twice
35:44
a week yeah loved it yeah it's been a part of our Lives yeah yeah it has yeah
35:50
so so let me switch gears a little bit to community this is a community you know podcast right we're talking about
Community and Family Values
35:56
and and obviously there's you know many members of the church in this community there's also many many that are not and
36:02
stuff like that you know how how how do you feel that you know obviously you know your ancestor Ephraim Hanks and and
36:09
just your life and stuff like that what what things do you think are important in a community what what things help a
36:15
community stay together you know and and you know to have that shared Heritage
36:20
and stuff like that well I I would suggest that communication is a great thing there are differences of opinions
36:27
but if we can learn to communicate disagree in a dis in a nice manner yeah I think that would be one of the main
36:34
things and to appreciate what the community is doing and serve however we can yeah we
36:41
have great great Community leaders in Leigh for example yeah yeah lot of good
36:47
people here right a lot of great people yeah anything else Phil that that you
36:52
know that we haven't covered yet that that you would want to cover or talk about well I haven't mentioned my family
36:58
we have as I indicated 10 living children and I I believe they all have
37:04
concern with the community in the church and I believe one thing that maybe has
37:11
filtered down through Ephraim and and my father and my mother and our situation
37:17
during my growing up years was the Integrity in the workplace I I look at
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my children and grandchildren they are great workers they're dependable and
37:28
they are sought after by employers because they will show up to
37:33
work yeah and they won't be troubled with drugs and they're good workers they're good workers that's been a great
37:40
blessing that I've observed and that I think I think you bring up a good point obviously you know that work ethic
37:46
especially nowadays where a lot of people want something for nothing right you know or we want fast food we want
37:51
instant gratification you know all these different things and so and you're saying hey you know that's a a Heritage in our family is hey we work hard you
37:58
know and and obviously a benefit is hey people want you for work right yeah
38:04
which is a good thing right so that's uh been a great thing in our family I think
38:09
yeah any any other you know with when your family gathers together and stuff like that you know any other things that
38:16
you teach them that that that you want to teach the audience right now put you I wish I could teach them more sure I'm
38:22
not gifted with words obviously but we enjoy getting together
38:27
and there's a very still a very cohesive feeling with our family children and the
38:34
grandchildren and great grandchildren now great feeling of togetherness we try to get together twice a year as many as
38:42
can come together this coming June we're going to meet in Martin's Cove wow
38:49
remembering Ephraim yeah and in 2026 is going to be ephraim's 200th birthday W
38:57
we're planning a big family reunion trying to get as many of his descendants
39:02
together as possible that's great but yes we try to keep that family feeling yeah looking towards the future you know
Hopes for the Future
39:09
as we kind of wrap up here but looking towards the future what what things do you see and want to see here in Lehi and and
39:17
and in the United States and just you know you know what what kind of things do you do you have hope for the future
39:22
and and what kind of things do you look forward to I guess well I think as far as Lehi is concerned one of the big
39:27
challenges right now is transportation housing of course but yeah but we live
39:32
close to Pioneer Crossing and we see that difficulty yeah and I hope that can
39:38
be resolved as soon as possible with yeah with at least uh East West Corridor
39:44
something possible yeah yeah and I know there are opinions one way and another but I see that as an issue that needs to
39:50
be resolved our country I think our religious freedom is one thing that we need to be really concerned with and uh
39:58
I have suffered by like many others with inflation over the past few years yeah I
40:03
get a little angry when I go to the grocery store or or make different purchases yeah I don't see the necessity
40:11
for all of that inflation yeah and I think that needs to be resolved hopefully our leadership will take uh
40:19
immediate action in that regard yeah I am sorry about the international difficulties the wars that are existing
40:27
in Ukraine and Israel and Gaza somehow that me needs to be resolved it's a complicated time it is a complicated
40:34
time very complicated but hopefully it can be resolved concerned about the
40:39
natural disasters it's a Pity to see the fires that are taking place now in
40:45
California hurricanes the tornadoes that come but I don't know that we can do much about that a lot of things are out
40:51
of our hands right right but we can sustain and support those that have
40:56
problems yeah if if Ephraim Hanks were alive today any advice you think he
41:01
would give people now you know seeing this world you know any any things from his you know the way he lived his life
41:08
principles that still apply to today I suppose just stay faithful like I would
41:13
tell the youth stay faithful and serve to the best of your abilities wherever
41:19
you live serve your church organization or your community do all you can to
41:26
build good okay thank you Phil thanks for thanks for coming on thanks for telling us about your ancestor and and
41:33
the life you've LED you've led a good life so hopefully for for another 20 years right my oldest sister lived to be
41:40
100 wow I hope to hope to get there okay that's awesome we'll see we'll see
41:47
that's right we'll see the rest is to be determined yeah yeah I've got to meet my
41:54
maker someday yes you do yes you do and with fear and trembling well maybe maybe
42:00
since this has become somewhat of a spiritual podcast obviously you know a lot of church stuff and stuff like that
Bearing Testimony
42:05
maybe can you conclude with bearing your testimony yes I suppose that the thing that has sustained my wife and myself
42:11
through the years is our testimony of Jesus Christ value that testimony and
42:18
like the words of one of the Brethren who said he appreciated the sacred gift
42:23
of testimony and I appreciate that and the sacred gift of Faith because I know that's a gift I know that we have been
42:30
sustained by the Lord and our Father in heaven and by the Holy Spirit and I do bear testimony that I have a deep
42:38
testimony and knowledge that they live and direct the work and I must say that
42:46
I have lived through the lives of many prophets and I've sustained each one and
42:53
I do sustain president russem Nelson I know he's a pro
42:58
and divinely called and I sustain him and those who labor with him as well as
43:03
our local leaders our state president and our Bishop and all others who are called to serve so I value that
43:11
testimony I have a testimony of family history and of Temple work I appreciate
43:17
that the Lord has blessed me with this sacred gift thank you Phil thank you for joining us on roots and branches of Lehi
43:24
I hope today's story helped you feel a little more connected to the people people who make up our community remember every person here has a unique
43:30
story and together we're what makes Lehi feel like home if you know someone who would be a great fit for this podcast
43:37
please fill out the form in the show notes so we can reach out and schedule an interview we'd love to hear from you
43:43
a big thank you to our sponsors the work Harding Home Mortgage team and play Harding nightly vacation Reynolds for supporting this show and helping us
43:50
bring our community closer together until next time keep growing those roots and reaching out to your branches take
43:56
care
